On 17 December 1937, Livingston Snow (1886-1966) walked into the dining room of his sister and brother-in-law’s house [pictured below] and executed them at point blank range. The story made headlines across the South and was all the buzz on the streets of Quitman. One of the more macabre notices, in the Tallahassee Democrat read: Each is Shot Through Head at Breakfast. By all accounts, Snow was “raging”, indicating he was criminally insane.

The victims were Lee W. Branch (1871-1937) and his wife Jamie Snow Branch (1875-1937), Livingston Snow’s sister. Research suggests that the family once owned the magnificent farmhouse that draws photographers to the area to this day. Jamie’s father was Dr. S. N. Snow (1840-1905) and her mother Scotia Livingston Snow (1848-1904). The Branches were quite successful; Lee Branch was a prominent attorney who had once practiced in Washington, D. C., and had formerly been president of the Georgia Bar Association. This was a powerful position that connected the family to the most influential people in Georgia. At the time of his death he had been recently appointed to the state board of education by Governor E. D. Rivers. The Branches were survived by a daughter, Lalla Branch Kirkpatrick (1910-1993), who was living in the Panama Canal Zone at the time. Her husband was the highly decorated Navy Rear Admiral Charles C. Kirkpatrick (1907-1988).

According to contemporary accounts, “The shooting took place at the breakfast table, where Mr. and Mrs. Branch, and Snow’s brother, Russell Snow (1888-1966), were seated. Branch and his wife were killed instantly. Each was shot through the head. Grady Marable, Quitman officer and the first to reach the scene, said: “Someone phoned me from the residence to come at once and I was met at the door by Mrs. T. R. Moye, a neighbor and wife of a physician. Inside the house I found Dr. T. R. Moye and Russell Snow wrestling on the floor with Livingston Snow. I told them I would take him into custody and after a scuffle I overcame him. Russell Snow had knocked the gun from his brother’s hand. Livingston Snow was raving. I understand that he was mentally ill and plans were being made to take him to an institution. Mrs. Branch lay dead in the doorway between the music room and living room. She evidently had gotten up when the shooting started. Mr. Branch sat dead at the breakfast table. He sat upright, leaning slightly to one side. There was bullet wound in the back of Mrs. Branch’s head. Mr. Branch was shot just above the left eye. The bullet came out near the temple and fell spent on the floor. Sheriff Colin Clanton and Police Chief George Clanton of Quitman came and the three of us took Livingston Snow to the Brooks County Jail…Friends of the family said Russell Snow, a lawyer for many years associated with Branch, had come here from Cocoa, Fla., his home, for a brief visit.” –Tallahassee Democrat, 17 December 1937.

Russell Snow, with whom Livingston had been living in Florida, gave a slightly more graphic account of the unfolding tragedy: “All of us had known for some time of his mental condition and his subsequent melancholia. He knew of the plan for him to leave this morning with me and friends for Milledgeville where he was to be given treatment. Early this morning I was awakened by Livingston leaving the Branch house. He returned about 8:15 and called to me upstairs that sister was waiting breakfast and to hurry on down. We had concluded breakfast and I was waiting for the cook to bring me a cup of coffee when Livingston suddenly pushed his chair out, stood up quickly, and said ‘I’m so sorry about this,’ and fired point blank into the head of Mr. Branch. Mr. Branch remained in a seated position and except for the look appeared as if living…My sister fled into the reception hall and Livingston followed, firing a bullet at close range through her head. I believe both were killed instantly…Then began a terrific struggle for possession of the pistol. In the fight, I was thrown violently to the floor and as he stood he fired at me and missed and then the pistol snapped twice. The failure of the last two cartridges to explode saved my life. As soon as I could get to my feet, I rushed at him, after he had broken the pistol, ejected the shells and was reloading the weapon from cartridges. In the struggle I tripped him and we fought on the floor. Finally I jerked the pistol away, threw it into a corner, and then began choking him into submission. He was on the floor and I was on top of him trying to subdue him when Dr. T. R. Moye, who heard the shots, ran to my assistance and then the police came.” -via uncredited contemporary newspaper account on Findagrave.

Livingston Snow told Sheriff Clanton he “intended to wipe out the family and then commit suicide.” Russell Snow swore out a lunacy warrant against his brother. In short order, a commission judged him insane and ordered him committed with a detainer filed in the event he should recover. The next day, the solicitor, Sheriff Clanton, and county commissioner Turner Brice took him, handcuffed, to the state mental hospital in Milledgeville. It was common practice among upper class whites of the time to dispose of such issues in a quick and quiet manner. Considering the family’s connections, this was an expected outcome. Had this crime been committed by someone black or of the white working class, much more information would have come to light. Apparently, he remained institutionalized for the remainder of his life, as his death record notes that he died in Baldwin County, Georgia. He is buried in Madison, Florida, beside his parents and several of his siblings in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Lee and Jamie Snow Branch are buried in Quitman.

As to Livingston Snow the man, he attended Emory College [now Emory University] where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity, was elected to what I presume was the student council, and played football and baseball. Some sources described him as a retired capitalist and others a retired pecan merchant.

My friend, Florida architectural historian Alyssa McManus shared these facts, which she discovered through extensive research: After his parents deaths, he and Russell were the legal charges of his sister Jamie and her husband. He was 14 at the time of his father’s death and ‘away at school’ in Valdosta. He seems to have attended college early. He attended Emory in Atlanta from 1906-1908…He was an avid bridge player. In 1910, he lived with his maid. I don’t know if she’d worked for the family. On the census, the relationship to her was ‘brother in law”, which is quite curious. He was involved with the establishment of a canning plant. He was a WWI vet. He threw parties and was in the society pages of Asheville frequently. He seemed quite sane to me. His sister visited him in Asheville frequently enough to have her own friends there. Makes me wonder what happened that they determined his was mentally ill…He had a funeral that was announced in the Tallahassee Democrat...I am imagining a Truman Capote type. He never did marry and never was a lady friend mentioned. I’m not assuming, but maybe he did not prefer ladies. He was best man or usher at several weddings. So far as a career, he worked for Armour packing and then Rogers Grocers, both times as a traveling salesman.

Beyond that, nothing so far. As to the Capote reference, it’s very possible that Livingston Snow was gay. Since he never married or had “lady friends” that seems a fair conclusion. Since being gay at the time was legally classified as a mental illness for which criminal penalties existed, that could have very well played into the perception by his family that he was insane. This is mere conjecture, but it hearkens to the interior turmoil of many gay men and women of the time. It certainly doesn’t justify what he did, but if he had been embarrassing the family with bizarre behavior, their decision to institutionalize him may have been all it took to push him over the edge. Whatever the reason, it’s a sad story.